Firefighters spent four hours tackling a huge blaze at the SCA Hygiene Products, in Prudhoe, Northumberland.

It started when equipment in the machine room overheated causing paper dust to ignite at around 11pm last night.

Five fire engines attended as night-shift workers were evacuated to another part of the factory.

Crews from Hexham, Ponteland, Prudhoe and Swalwell were at the factory, on the Low Prudhoe Industrial estate until around 3am today.

Nobody was injured but production at the plant is expected to be affected while fire damage is repaired.

Watch manager Dave Duffy, from Hexham, said the blaze took so long to tackle because it covered a large area.

“We got the call at around 11pm last night and mobilised three fire engines initially and a further two after that,” he said.

“The fire was in the machine room towards the roof void.

“It was a large area but by the nature of the fire it was not big flames. It was a slow-burning, working its way through the paper dust that was lying around.

“There was not much damage to most of the plant, but production will be affected for a week or so because some electrical wiring was burned through.”

Eight firefighters entered the building to search for hotspots in corners and between machines.

Mr Duffy continued: “We had crews working on either side of the machines, locating and dampening down hotspots. We had four firefighters wearing breathing apparatus up on the roof and four in the roof void.

“There were five crews there and we were there until 3am. It was quite a large area to cover and we had to locate hotspots in the nooks and crannies between machines.”